Vampirism? Romanticism? More so just confusion.

Every day.

I get up before the sun rises, start preparing my tea, and play my morning music full of 

Emilie Autumn, The Birthday Massacre, Nightwish, Siouxie,

Amongst other things.

I prepare my face and pull my clothes out of the closet, start mixing and matching,
(Trying to find something that matches my mood every day can be a bit of a challenge)
Sometimes its pink, sometimes its stripey, sometimes its foofy, sometimes its full of one inch spikes and chains.
Then I apply my white powder and sunscreen. Glitter, jewels, hearts, whatever I can find to decorate my face.
As you can probably tell from my morning routine, I tend to look a bit different compared to that of your "average" person.
In middle school this brought much alarm amongst my peers.

I believe their fear of me wearing blue lipstick lead them to defend themselves with offense.
I kept to myself, but often would have sandwiches thrown at me, be locked out of classrooms, and was often sent to the principles office for even standing up for myself.
All because people could not figure out how to react to the way I looked.
Why is it such natural instinct to shun what we see as different?
Why is it that most people would have to be educated on these matters to know that these things are wrong?
(I for one, was always on the other side of the fence so I learned respect for the unknown and different fairly quickly compared to those who were always on the higher spectrum of the "popularity ladder")
Years have passed since middle school and now I am attending a university and my morning routine of decorating myself the way I do has not changed much. Perhaps I have grown out of the blue lipstick phase (kinda)
But in general my wardrobe has remained 

Stripey

Spooky

Lacey and

Spikey
Full of Victorian influence and influences from favorite artists, novels, friends, and other things of the like.
What HAS changed though is my peer's reactions.
Let me explain this a bit further because this natural phenomenon I find a bit surprising and entirely entertaining.
Of course one would expect the maturity level to increase between the time of middle school and university.

But other's reactions speak of something quite a bit more than just that.
Stares remain the same

but now stares are a bit more lingering

Often greeted by a smile, or a shy look away and a blush.
I do not act much different compared to most students

(on the outside that is)

But I do look a lot different obviously, but still....

Apparently looking this different harbors reactions such as
A girl walking up to me in my music class with practically star struck eyes and quietly admitting
"I love your hair...I love your outfits...you always look so amazing every single day. How do you do that? Where do you get your....EVERYTHING. I wish I could dress like that.....I wish I could be you...."
This is not any exaggeration on my part.
I was dumbfounded by the whispering of that last phrase.

All I could do is smile (although I probably looked confused as all hell) and say Thankyou as enthusiastically  as possible.
I can understand a compliment.

Compliments are always nice to hear, it makes you feel you must be doing something right with your wardrobe but....

I wish I could be you?
That is taking it a bit far me thinks.
Especially since I am a complete and utter stranger to this girl.
Oddly enough though, this strange occurrence has been happening more often as of late.
Specifically during the time I have been going to a university plus my late highschool years.
In fact, in my speech class, a young gentleman gave an interesting speech that actually applied to something in my life. As any "normal" person would, I struck up a conversation with him after class to go deeper into the subject he had presented.
When I called to him he looked completely in awe and looked around a couple times and pointed to himself in a confused manner as if to say ".....your talking to me? really?"
I think I attacked the poor lad with words though. ( I talk too much sometimes, I really do, especially with more tea than usual in my system)
But after the conversation he was looking at me for a moment and went
"Wow...."

To which I repeated

wow?

At that moment he explained that he had not expected me to be so friendly and polite
To which I replied "Oh sorry if I look unfriendly or evil most of the time"
He nearly stopped me in the middle of my sentence going
"No, no, no, I'm sorry, that is not what I meant. I didn't mean it in a bad way I meant it more in a sorta, you look too mystical and mysterious to just start up conversations like that."
Once again I am left with a bit of confusion as we part and go to our separate classes.

Mysterious? Mystical? As far as I am concerned, I am just me.
There have been other accounts of this as well, with younger children (theres a highschool connected to the university) that follow me and stare, and will randomly compliment me after days of them lingering just 20 feet behind me.
So what changed?

Between fear and (dare I say it?) admiration?

The only explanation for this I find a bit sickening

*waves angry fist in air*

Romantic vampire and goth novels, along with the widespread plague (and not the good kind) of sexual vampire television shows.
The change in attitude is very distinct and noticeable amongst people from their early teens to early twenties.
Suddenly people are having fantasies about the mysterious person dressed in black in the corner of the room, thinking that this person is going to sweep them off their feet and bring them some sort of adventure and lust.
Although I admit, I am a romantic fool when it comes to the classic vampire novels.
But todays stuff? It is all junk novels, and they hold no deeper meaning than the want of lust.
And as far as television...well I don't watch it. It bores me.
But don't you find that a bit disturbing?
That it changed so quickly from fearing people clad in black because of incidents like Columbine and other things of the like

to wanting to date people clad in black because to have a person with dark hair, pale skin, and victorian outfits latched on to your arm (not in the vampiric way) because to have that almost serves as a trophy

a big fat

"LOOK AT ME MY SEX LIFE IS GREAT CUZ IM DATING SOMEONE WHO'S INTO BITING"
*shudders*
I am not sure if I should be grateful for this sexual vampire connection movement or not.
It brings compliments, yes, but it also makes people act a bit brainwashed and creepy.
(coming from someone who bathes in creepy)

Anyhow, on a lighter note, I do look a bit mysterious at times. But I often forget the way I look because I have become so comfortable in my own skin I forget I look any different compared to everyone else around me.

Perhaps this is why I get so many scares

(just kidding, I only look like a corpse on special occasions)
Oops did I say "scares" I meant stares... Ha!